The Pine Leaf Boys travel to Los Angeles in two weeks to attend the Grammy Awards. The young southwest Louisiana band's "Homage au Passe" is nominated as best Cajun/zydeco album.

Nothing unusual there, except that, in the traditional sense, the album isn't even out yet.

Just as movie studios screen films early "in limited release" to qualify for the Oscars, the Pine Leaf Boys released "Homage au Passe" digitally on iTunes last fall to meet the Sept. 30 Grammy deadline. The actual CD version comes out Feb. 3, five days before the Grammy telecast.

"We had already recorded it, so we didn't want to wait a whole year," Pine Leaf Boys vocalist and accordionist Wilson Savoy said. "We had a good record. Might as well strike the iron while it's hot."

"Homage au Passe" translates as "Homage to the Past." Savoy and his band mates certainly take cues from Cajun music's elder statesmen, among them singing only in French.

But they are not museum curators. Instead, they peddle a still-vibrant music meant to facilitate drinking and/or dancing. Both will be in abundance when the Pine Leaf Boys perform Saturday, Jan. 24, at d.b.a.

"That's pretty much the theme of Cajun music," Savoy said. "It's music to go out and have fun and not worry about tomorrow. We're not playing exactly like they were in the past -- it's evolved a lot from the 1950s. But we respect what they did, because it brought us to where we are now."

Savoy is the son of Marc and Ann Savoy, purveyors of a Cajun music cottage industry that encompasses everything from homemade accordions to collaborations with Linda Ronstadt. He grew up immersed in "back porch" Cajun music and has never really come up for air.

Courtesy of ConquerooThe Pine Leaf Boys go digital with a CD that pays homage to their Cajun forefathers.

At 26, he is completely unplugged from popular music. He considers Jerry Lee Lewis a contemporary influence, and thought "Led Zeppelin" referred to an individual until the Pine Leaf Boys opened for a surprise Robert Plant appearance at Tipitina's in 2007.

From their 2005 inception, the Pine Leaf Boys attracted national attention, in part because they tour 150 days a year. Arhoolie Records, a California-based label that specializes in regional roots music and vintage recordings, issued the band's first two albums.

For "Homage au Passe," the band signed with Lionsgate Music, the new in-house music and publishing division of a company whose primary business is movies and television.

Lionsgate president of music Jay Faires approached the band as a fan. For Savoy, the Lionsgate deal offered an opportunity to place the band's music in movies and TV shows.

"We are good representatives of real Cajun music," he said. "If we passed on this (deal), they could very well get someone who is not. We kind of thought it was our duty to accept this."

Already the Pine Leaf Boys' recording of "Whiskey est Mon Ami" ("Whiskey is My Friend") appeared in the 2008 Lionsgate release "The Lucky Ones," starring Tim Robbins and Rachel McAdams. The band had used a single microphone to record "Whiskey est Mon Ami" direct to a computer hard drive. Savoy then e-mailed an MP3 to Faires as a sample of the band's live sound. Faires insisted on using that low-fi recording in the movie.

"I thought it was cool that he was more interested in the energy and quality of the music, not the quality of the sound," Savoy said. "I realized they had a good vision of what Cajun music is."

The creation of "Homage Au Passe" was not without drama. The day before the Pine Leaf Boys were scheduled to enter a Ville Platte studio last summer, fiddler Cedric Watson announced his intention to leave the band to focus on his own project. (Watson released his self-titled solo debut in mid-2008.) He offered to play on the record as planned, but his band mates declined.

Bassist Blake Miller had also recently left. So Savoy, guitarist Jon Bertrand and drummer Drew Simon cut basic tracks as a three-piece. They later recruited Courtney Granger, a fiddle player and singer from Eunice, and Thomas David, a bassist from Lafayette, to dub their parts onto the collection of original compositions and Cajun standards.

"There was no theme -- it is a snapshot of the songs we are doing this year," Savoy said. "Other Cajun bands take it too seriously. When they record, they are very meticulous about their sound. We've always had more of the rock 'n' roll mentality, just get in there and do it, have fun with it, and not worry if one guy is out of tune or a song is sped up a little bit."

The band's 2007 album, "Blues de Musicien," landed in the inaugural class of Grammy nominees for the newly created Cajun/zydeco category. Thanks to its digital early release, "Homage au Passe" is the Pine Leaf Boys' second Grammy-nominated album.

Last year, only Savoy and Bertrand attended the Grammy ceremony in L.A. They returned with tales of red carpets, open bars -- Savoy was especially impressed with a bar built of ice at a Grammy after-party -- impromptu adventures with rock and rap stars, and bountiful buffets.

Sufficiently regaled, the entire band is attending this year.

"For Cajuns," Savoy said, "you tell them it's good food, and that's about all it takes."